Paxton will carry on his predecessor Greg Abbott's habit of suing the administration and/or the federal government anytime a sneeze of regulation issued from the White House.

Abbott's record was a mixed bag. He sued Obama about 30 times. He won maybe a third, depending on how you slice a win. The Environmental Protection Agency was a favored target, naturally, as was the Affordable Care Act that Abbott and Paxton have surely never called the Affordable Care Act.

What troubles me here is the difficulty I have in dividing the politics and the policy. It's particularly troublesome when it comes to an attorney general.

We had an editorial today calling on Paxton to get behind some measures that would help insulate the attorney's general office from politics. Something tells me this isn't going to be a priority for our new AG. And lest you think this is some lefty nonsense, the main reforms here are being recommended by the chief ethics lawyer from the George W. Bush administration.

It's getting more and more worrisome that the chief law enforcement officer in many states is basically a political hack - an arm of his party's bidding or special interests or both.

The suits against the Obama administration smack of this. They were so frequent they became little political ribbons Abbott waved around and Paxton danced in. That distorts the purpose of the office.

Paxton won't improve this. Why should he? His voters want this kind of thing. It's dangerous. It's foolish. The attorney general, more than any other state office holder, must create as much separation from politics as possible. Absolute separation is impossible. We all understand that. Policy follows politics. But there's a difference between proper use of the powers of the office and playing naked politics with those powers.

Paxton is unlikely to demonstrate he's interested in that difference. Instead, let the lawsuits flow.